National Volunteer Week is about inspiring, recognizing and encouraging people to engage in their community. Why? Because volunteers are key to a healthy community. They provide much needed support to organizations for all sorts of things from cleaning to redesigning websites to raising funds. Did you know that one hour of volunteer time is worth $26.72 in labor to our community? Multiply that by the thousands and thousands of hours given each year and well, that’s a boat load of value.

Here are some ways you can help celebrate!

• Thank the volunteers in your life. Handwritten notes, baked goods or a simple email go a long way to let people know their time is valuable to you.
• Check out some of the reasons why staff and United Way volunteers give back.
• Share why you volunteer or your favorite volunteer story with us (and the rest of your friends) using #UWKC. You’ll create warm fuzzies and maybe even inspire someone else to start volunteering.
• The Mariners are getting into the fun with their Salute to Volunteers Night. Cheap tickets and a game with other community-minded people—yes please!

Of course we think the best way to celebrate is to volunteer more. We have a number of ways to help you find the perfect volunteer opportunity for you:

• Use this fancy tool to define exactly what you’re looking to do. You can sort by issue area, day of the week you’re available to help, whether you want to do it once or monthly, zip code, etc.
• Find a cause you care about. For example, we care a lot about ending homelessness, which is why we’re hosting the Community Resource Exchangenext week. Here are ways you can volunteer to help end homelessness.
• Are you in your 20s or 30s and not sure where to start with volunteering? Join Emerging Leaders and you’ll be invited to join a group at a monthly project. It’s a great way to meet people while learning more at the same time.
• Take it one step further and ask a friend, co-worker or neighbor to join you while you volunteer.

Thanks to all the volunteers out there. We (literally) couldn’t do it without you.